Tag: Old Kingdom of Egypt

Bast-The Egyptian /Kemetic Problem

Posted on by houseofcyanide
photograph of a cosmetic jar topped with a lio...
photograph of a cosmetic jar topped with a lioness, representing the goddess Bast, a burial artifact from the tomb of Tutankhamun dating from the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt, circa 1323 B.C. – Cairo Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As I stated previously the Ancient Egyptian civilization ran anywhere from 6,000 to 25,000 years. That is a lot of time my friends, it has only been roughly 2,000 year between now and the birth of Christ and look how much has changed.

So even at the most conservative estimates the Egyptian civilization ran for twice as long  as any other culture since.  There is a theory why this is but I will get into that another time.

When dealing with Egyptian Divinity you are dealing with an at least 6,000 year spectrum. Which has roughly been divided up between Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. This information is important, because the majority of the information out there is only from New Kingdom. There is some from Middle Kingdom but much from Old Kingdom is lost. There are several reason for this but again I will go into this another time, Oh Library of Alexandria how I mourn you. 

Bast is an Old Kingdom Goddess.

The Old Kingdom was very much like Europe after the Romans retreated. Full of smaller tribal kingdoms, each with their own set of gods, always quarreling with each other.

For the majority of Old Kingdom, Upper and Lower Egypt were separate and even once they were united under the same crown they were still divided much as they are today.

It is important to understand the people that “created” Bast in order to understand Bast.

So because of evolution through time and the tribal groups coming together there is a lot of  syncretism. I know it a 4 letter word not actually consisting of four letters.

Bast has many forms and has been syncretized with numerous other Egyptian and Non Egyptian Goddess. This is a list of just SOME of them. One of Her TITLES is : She Of Many Names

Bast/ Bastis/ Ba en Aset/Ubasti/ Bastet/ Bubastis/ Wadjet-Bast/ Artemis/ Sekhmet/ Hathor/ Bast-Mut/ Nekhbet/ Diana.

So as you can see getting to know her is not as simple as just picking up a book and learning about her. For most likely you are only getting a part of the picture, only a piece of the puzzle. She is as hard to nail down as…..Well a Cat 🙂

 

Definition of SYNCRETISM

1
: the combination of different forms of belief or practice
2
: the fusion of two or more originally different inflectional form
*****I am not an Anthropologist or an Egyptologist. The majority of this information is either UPG or from  Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends by Lewis Spence (who was an expert)
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